Constitution

Our Constitution sets out the rights and responsibilities of patients, the public and staff. The values that lie at the heart of our constitution are to ‘respect and value people’ ‘listen to local people’ and work in ‘partnership’. It also identifies our aims for involving patients and the public in commissioning, which are to

Use a variety of effective engagement forums, translate the commissioning intelligence from constituent practice members, patients and the public into the decision-making process for describing the commissioning intentions and decisions of the CCG.

Utilise a variety of effective patient/public forums that capture timely robust data to ensure that people have a positive experience of care.

The CCG will secure public involvement in the planning, development and consideration of proposals for changes and decisions affecting the operation of commissioning arrangements by:

Delegating the responsibility for overseeing the discharge of this duty to the Director of Commissioning.

Ensuring Lay member for patient and public involvement representation at the Governing Body.

Ensuring compliance with the Cabinet Office’s Code of practice on Consultation where formal consultation is required.

Engaging with the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Healthwatch, Health and Wellbeing Board.

Requiring reporting of performance against the delivery of this duty to the Groups Policy and Commissioning Committee.

Complying with the following principles when engaging with the public:
– Accessible and inclusive, to all people in our community.
– Clear and professional, demonstrating pride and credibility.
– Targeted, to ensure people are getting the information they need.
– Open, honest and transparent.
– Accurate, fair and balanced.
– Timely and relevant.
– Sustainable, to ensure on-going mutually beneficial relationships.
– Two-way, we won’t just talk, we’ll listen.
– Cost-effective, always demonstrating value for money.

Governing Body

As set out in our constitution, our Governing Body includes representation from our patients and the public, including a:

Lay member for Audit and Governance, Conflict of Interest Guardian and also the ‘Speak-up’ Guardian for the CCG.

Lay member for patient and public involvement.

Lay member for commissioning.

In addition, the CCG also invites Healthwatch Walsall to attend Board Meetings and take part in discussions.

The Governing Body meets in public six times a year. Anyone who is interested can attend the public meetings and meeting dates and papers can be found on our Governing Body webpage.

Committees

All of our committees incorporate Lay Member representation, and both the CCG’s Primary Care Commissioning Committee and Integrated Assurance Group incorporates Healthwatch representation. You can find out about the membership of our committees in our Annual Report.

Communication and Engagement Strategy

Our Communications and Engagement Strategysets out our approach and principles to communicating with stakeholders and the public and involving local people in changes to NHS services in Walsall. It provides clear objectives to ensure that patient and public views are at the heart of the services we commission. More information on our strategy can be found on our engagement webpage.